Monday, February 29, 2016

Welcome to March and welcome to another challenge from Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. As always, it is a month-long anything goes (Christmas-related) challenge. The sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps. I used this adorable image called "Poinsettia Bear". Unfortunately, I think it might be retired as I couldn't find it in the store. But, it doesn't really matter because each and every image in the store is super cute.

This card started with the cream colored circle and the strip of flower patterned paper; the circle was in my bits and pieces stash, and the patterned paper is part of a paper pack I am almost finished using up. Oh, yeah, the sentiment strip was in the bits and pieces stash, too. It was a fishtail banner, but I trimmed it down to fit my space. The poinsettias were die cut from scraps and the background paper was also an offcut. The only full sheet "harmed" was the chocolate brown card stock for the base and the scalloped circle, and perhaps the cream mat under the patterned paper. Hope you can play along with us this month, it's time to get started on those Christmas cards!

We're turning THREE in March! Can you believe it?! The Love To Scrap! Challenge Blog Design Team is proud to bring you our "Three's A Crowd!" Blog Hop to celebrate our third birthday! We're being sponsored by Your Next Stamp!Come hop with us for a chance to win a $25 gift card to use in the YNS Store!And as an extra added bonus, our challenge and blog hop participants may use code YNSLTS3 to receive 20% off their order - and this code is valid for the duration of our blog hop!How awesome is that?!

As you hop, leave comments! The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win!

All of the LTSCB designers are creating BIRTHDAY inspiration projects for our blog hop.Everyone participating in the blog hop is invited to link up a birthday project for an extra entry into the drawing!

I just love YNS stamps!! Karen, the owner, is always delivering the most adorable images and they are usually paired with some super fun sentiments. Here is the card I created to celebrate LTSCB's 3rd birthday this month:

This is Phoebe. Isn't she adorable?! Don't you just love her sweet little floral dress?! I even managed to use up some things from my bits and pieces stash! I had the 3,4, 7 and 8 in the stash, so I just cut the 2, 5, and 6 and had a fun little border strip to use.

I embossed the sentiment with black embossing powder and colored the hearts with a red marker.

We hope you are enjoying the hop and if you get lost along the way - or if you landed here in the middle of the hop and want to join in the fun - head over to the Love To Scrap!Challenge Blog to read all the details and start from the beginning!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

A sketch is a great way to start a card. In fact, it's pretty much how I always start. I decided to use this super cute bunny. I guess I was feeling in need of some springtime.

The color scheme was inspired by the purple of the clover and one of those little butterflies which was in my bits and pieces stash. I punched a few more out to go along with it and added some pearls. A little bit of the purple ribbon was in the stash, too. But unfortunately, while making the bow, I cut a bit too much and now there is a different piece in the stash. : ) The sentiment tag was also in the stash. It was a little bit too big, so I trimmed it down a little to fit my sentiment better. I masked off most of the sentiment before I inked it up so only the "smile" part actually received any ink. This is a great way to stretch your sentiment stamps.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

A few days before Valentine's Day, I was getting my cards all written and ready to get in the mail when I realized I hadn't made one for my in-laws!! Yikes! We were getting ready to leave for the weekend and I had a bunch to do, so it had to be quick and CAS. The little bit of lace was recycled from a favor from a wedding we went to last year. It was just the right length!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I started off by masking the horizon line and sponging yellow, pink, lavender, and light blue on the background. I deepend the edges with a bit of navy blue and added several clouds in a light gray. It's a bit hard to see, so I included a closer-up photo below. I probably should have stamped them in a darker gray, but I wanted them to be subtle and they definitely are! Then I took the mask off and sponged black along the bottom edge. I stamped the palm trees in black and selectively stamped a couple more "sand hills" along the ground line. After looking at it for a while, I decided to color in the trees' outline with a black sharpie marker. It gives it the silhouette look I was going for. I used the "love" from the Love Stencil stamp for the banner. Once again, after looking at the card for quite a while, and on the advice of my sister and my oldest daughter (it was actually her idea), I stamped the "Sandcastle" image twice onto scrap paper with a dark brown, colored in the starfish with an aqua marker and caramel ink and then fussy cut them out and stuck them to the base of the trees. It was just the "something" that we all thought was missing. Here's the photo of the clouds.

I can't wait to see how our photo inspires you. It can be the colors, the theme, etc. And if you see any stamps that you "need" I have a 10% off your entire order coupon over on my left sidebar.

I was given this gorgeous image by Imagine That! to work with. I had one of these butterflies in my bits and pieces stash and was the inspiration for my card's color scheme:

There are several fabulous sentiments that go along with this beautiful image. I chose the "Get well wishes" sentiment as I don't have any get well cards in my stash. The dotted ribbon was also in my bits and pieces stash. I punched a few more butterflies and voila! good to go.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Well, here we are mid-February and it's time for our mid-month inspiration post from Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. It's a month-long anything Christmas related goes challenge. This time I have something other than a card for your inspiration:

For several years, I've been wanting to make an interactive Advent Calendar for my girls. I just haven't been able to come up with the right idea and never have the time to make it around Christmas time anyway. This year I finally got around to making something and it also served to use up some scraps of paper that I have been trying really hard to use. Here's how this project came to be: I usually hang the Christmas cards we receive in our entryway. I usually just tape them on above the closet doorway and on the doors if we receive enough. But this year, we started renovating the entryway and I didn't want to put tape on the newly painted wall. So, my idea is that I could hang a string across the closet doors and I could use these decorated clothes pins to first hold little kraft bags that hold the little gifts or activity ideas for each day. Then as that day's bag is opened I can clip in one of the Christmas cards we receive. I think it's going to be a really fun decoration. Here's how it was done: I cut strips of my patterned paper into 1/2 inch by about 3 inches. I sprayed the back with spray adhesive and adhered them to the clothes pins, then trimmed off the excess length. I die cut snowflakes in two different sizes for interest and adhered them to the clothes pins. Then I die cut numbers for each day and used spray adhesive to adhere them on top of the snowflakes. It was a bit time consuming, but was really quite easy and will be really cute hanging in my entryway.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

When I chose this stamp set, one of my 7-year-olds tried to talk me out of it. I don't think she was impressed with the underwear images. : ) I'm glad I didn't take her advice because I've used it twice so far and just LOVE it. The sentiments are so fun and seriously, customizable underwear??!! Need I say more? This is my Valentine's Day card for my husband. I think he'll get a kick out of it.

I started out by stamping the hearts on the background. Then I stamped the panties and the boxer shorts. They are both blank, so I added the red hearts. So cute! I added a bit of glitter pen to each of the dots on the heart on the panties, to give it a rhinestone look. You can see that a bit better in the photo below.

Within the past month, I just got this cute little stamp set from YNS and I knew I had to use it for a Valentine's Day card. It was tough choosing between the cute images, but I finally went with this adorable little bee.

I wanted to make the wings shimmer, so I stamped a second image and cut out the wings only so I could used the rest of the image as a mask. Then I spritzed over the mask with glimmer mist. It's tough to catch it in the picture, but you can see the sparkle a bit.

Oooo . . . and I was even able to use a piece from my bits and pieces stash--that black arrow. I thought it was a pretty cute addition.

It's time for another What If Wednesday? challenge from The House That Stamps Built. This week is a Designer's Choice Challenge, and I am the designer!! Since it is the Valentine's Day season, I chose to challenge you to add some hearts to your projects. Here is my card for your inspiration:

I started out by stamping the "Love Stencil" stamp for my background. The heart actually has the word "love" underneath it, but I cut it apart so I could use the heart by itself. Here's a tip for you, I only stamped the top, bottom and side rows of the card since the center portion would be covered by the next layer. Then I realized that I needed to stamp the middle heart on the second from bottom row, so I added that in. On the middle layer, I stamped the "Sheet Music" stamp. For the sentiment, I used markers to color on the rubber since I wanted the letters to be black and the heart red. But, it didn't stamp dark enough for me, so I used Sharpie markers in matching colors to make it more solid. and I love how bold it turned out. On the inside I stamped the "Valentine's" stamp.

I hope you get a chance to play along, I can't wait to see what you come up with. And don't forget to had some hearts!

Monday, February 8, 2016

I bought this super cute Candy Jar Die set from MFT for myself for Christmas. I had some fun playing with it over the weekend. I started by cutting the jar portion out of a piece of acetate and the top and base out of silver paper. I also die cut the jar out of white card stock to help it stand out from the background a bit. Then I had a moment of genius (at least I think it was!): I wanted to "fill" my jar with hershey kisses, so I crumpled up some tin foil and ran it through my die cutter with the "kisses" die and it is perfect!! They look just like hershey kisses all wrapped up. Sooooo Fun!!

I used a bit of chocolate twine to "tie" my label onto the jar. The scalloped oval was a recent addition to my bits and pieces stash; my paper slipped while I was die cutting it and flattened out one or two of the scallops. But I covered it up with my bow and no one (except all of you) will ever know.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

I just loved the sketch at Mojo Monday this week so much that I had to make a second card using it. My daughter made this flower for me a year or so ago and it's been sitting in my bits and pieces stash just waiting to be used. I saw it there and it became the basis for this non-traditional Valentine's Day color scheme. I created my own background using a grid stamp from Simon Says Stamp and Verve's "Surely Goodness".

The white circle the sentiment is stamped on was also in my bits in pieces stash, so two items used up on this card. Yeay!!

Saturday, February 6, 2016

I think I might be about halfway down with them, now. I guess I'd better get a move on! The gray circle is from my bits and pieces stash and the rest of the elements were chosen by how they covered it up (it's pretty dark and plain) and yet let it show. Clear as mud? And the result was something fun and elegant.

Every time I use this cute little snowman, he makes me smile. Specially with his little pieced hat and scarf. Just so cute! And I really love the bright colors on this card, if I do say so myself. : ) Since January 4th, I've been working on whittling down my bits and pieces stash (those little bits left over from previous cards, or die cuts that just didn't end up being used, little bits of ribbon to long to throw away, etc.), and I believe this is the 14th card using at least 1 piece from the stash. This time it is that red oval in the center. I've started looking at sketches and looking in my stash to find and item that works and then build the card from there. There are some pieces that are going to be hard to use, and I thought this would be one of them, but it really is the perfect backing for this sweet little guy.

I've been playing around with trying to use of some bits and scraps of Christmas patterned paper that I have had for several years. I love most of the patterns, but after having used them for cards, now there are only pieces that aren't really large enough for cards, but too big to throw away. I mad a bunch of tags that I posted here with different pieced together backgrounds. After making them, I still had some left and these are the tags I threw together using the last of the bits. I still have about 6 pieces left, but they are large enough to actually be used on cards.

I just love this little snowman, and he is absolutely perfect for paper piecing with his hat and scarf. And the piecing is perfect for using up little scraps! I can't wait to use up those last paper pieces, be looking for cards using them soon. But for now, I have eliminated a messy pile of scraps from my paper pile.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Just popping in with another Valentine's Day Card. I've got quite a few to go and not all that long to do it in. Ack!

And here is the inside that finishes the sentiment:

I really think this turned out super cute. The red circle was in my bits and pieces stash and after I cut the heart out, I thought I was going to be adding a piece to my stash, but then the heart was perfect to go behind the sentiment panel for the sketch.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Ok, so is this not the cutest kitty ever?! I won it a while ago and had it printed out for a bit. Finally got him colored up and he's just so cute!!

So, now another Valentine's Day card made AND the dotted ribbon was in my bits and pieces stash; as win-win! The button is recycled from some clothes my girls have outgrown. I always cut off the buttons from items that aren't in good enough condition to pass on; it's a great way to build the button stash.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

This is a card idea I've had in my head for a couple weeks. And I think it turned out pretty much like how I thought. I won these cork pieces a while ago, and I thought I would never use them. As you can see, they are kind of large for card making and I didn't really have any idea what to do with them. But as they sat on my desk I began to have this idea that they would make a really fun bulletin board. So, that's what I did. I stamps the "Because" and drew the border along the outside edge. It kind of looks like something that would be hanging in a bedroom, right? I stamped the notebook image and "pinned" it to the bulletin board. I used paper that reminded me of wallpaper and added a "border".